Critical Discourse Analysis of Beauty Product Advertisements

Introduction: Advertisement is a media discourse which deals with language and social practices. The role of media is to replace all older resources of knowledge and information and undertaking of the world. Producers always use specific strategy to attract their target group. In this regard, advertisement of beauty product grabs the attention of women in many ways.

The paper will investigate how the beauty products of hair oil manipulate women from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. We selected two Bangladeshi TVC based on beauty hair product (Jui Hair Oil and Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil). The aim of this study is to explore the ideology, visual, texts, specific linguistic features through the use of transliteration. Fairclough’s three Dimensional Model is used to explain the discursive relationships among language, ideology, power and culture.

Textual Analysis:

Attention seeking devices

a. Verbal Text(Linguistic Features):

Dialogue description:

Ad -1

Iss ki bristy! (Expressing romance, expectation, emotion etc)

Na gele hoy na! (Conveying touchiness, sentiment)

Jao! (Expressing vanity and sensitivity)

ami gelam (forced avoidance of real situation because of the limitation of time)

Comparative Reference: Ad-1 deals with indirect comparison between Jui Coconut Hair Oil and other hair products. It also conveys the message that Jui Hair Oil is more attractive for women than any other hair oil. In Ad -2, the Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil is considered as an updated version of Parachute Hair Oil which implies different benefit for women. This benefit is not presented as a typical beauty hair product which deals with both attractive and sensual element. It is produced for middle-aged women who need domestic peace.

Popular Actor- Arefin Shuvo. In this ad, the actor is performed to create the apparent ideology to attract the new married man. It’s one kind of new technique for the females to persuade their husband.

Ad-2

In this ad, the actress is performed to create the apparent ideology that any middle aged woman can solve their problem, anxiety by applying Parachute Advanced Hair Cooling Oil.

Camera angles affect how we perceive it. A strong weapon in the cinematographer’s arsenal is the ability to position the camera in relation to the subject or scenery. There are different angels of the camera. The angels are associated with our advertisements.

Eyelevel Angle

An eyelevel angle is the one in which the camera is placed at the subject’s height, so if the actor is looking at the lens, he wouldn’t have to look up or down. Eyelevel shots are incredibly common because they are neutral. In ad-1(figure 1 and figure 2), we can see the two different types of smiles. The first figure of the smile deals with expectation, emptiness and romance. The second smile is spontaneous, little bit naughty. In case of hair style, figure 4 shows healthy hair which must be unlocked from the hair pin. The woman wants to show her hair in front of her husband. Furthermore, in figure 5, we can see that the husband tries to intake the fragrance of hair. Figure 2 indicates that the husband is astonished by seeing the healthy, beautiful hair of his wife.

In ad-2, figure-12, 13 and 14 expresses anger, anxiety and tension of the lady house owner who is deeply concentrated on her meditation. In figure 14, we can see that she feels relaxed after applying Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil.

Low Angle

Low angles are captured from a camera placed below the actor’s eyes, looking up at them. In ad-1 (figure 6) indicates that time is very valuable for all of us. The husband looks at his wretch watch while taking a cup of tea. Moreover, the picture is taken in the morning. In figure 6, the decoration of the house is portrayed through the eyes’ of the advertisers. The picture signifies that the husband is rushing to catch his wife’s beautiful hair. The figure 8 expresses the spontaneous smile of the wife which is visible because of the hair oil. Figure 9 indicates slogan of the ad and reconciliation of the couple.

Ad-2 (figure 18) captures the scenery of the meditation. In the picture we can see the decoration of the drawing room which is organized with white colored screen, flower vase, both black and white colored cushion and so on.

High Angle

In a high angle, the camera is above the subject, looking down. In ad -1 (figure 9), the wife creates obstacle for her husband. But the husband has to go to office due to pressure of the office work. The picture expresses sentiment, futile expectation regarding romantic desire which will be fulfilled after using Jui Coconut Hair Oil.

In ad-2(figure-15), we can see the exaggeration of the light of camera which expresses satisfaction, happiness and peace. Figure 16 indicates equality between superior class and working class. On the other hand, we can see the difference by the portrayal of dress pattern. Both seem happy and satisfied because of the effect of Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil. Figure – 17 indicates the slogan of the ad which is written in dark blue color.

Duration of the ads:

Ad – 1: 01:06s

Ad – 2: 00.37s

Music and sound analysis:

In ad 1, the both the music and the sound is romantic. In the ad, we can see the use of positive adjectives. For example, the word, ‘adhar kalo’, ‘dighol kalo’, ‘mayabini chul’ highlight the positive lyric of the song. The phrase ‘maghar ghonoghota’ expresses the romantic atmosphere through the music of the song.

Ad-2 deals with background voice and sound. The phrase ‘Matha thanda’ is spoken by background male voice for three times. We can hear hissing sound through the utterance.

Social Practice Analysis:

According to Jhally (1995), “Advertising is the most influential institution of socialism in modern society.” The first ad (Jui Hair Oil) ad deals with the effect of modernism, romanticism, conflict between modernism and classicism, feminism and. At the beginning of the ad, we observe that the husband looks at his watch while taking a cup of tea (figure-6). He is very much career oriented person who has fear to lose his job. On the other hand, in this ad the wife wants to enjoy the romantic rainy atmosphere with her husband. It is a common romantic desire as a newly married woman. But the refusal comes from the husband indicates that people have no time for their family. As a nature of consumer-culture society, people are becoming money-making machine. On the other hand, the woman waits for her husband’s acceptance as a typical house-wife which is an opposite notion of modern woman. In the ad, the woman is represented as an inferior gender and she has only one option to impress her husband by showing her healthy and strong hair. In this case, beauty means to attract others by using Jui hair. The woman gives importance in her external beauty which raises the question regarding the bond between husband and wife. In today’s modern world, men are still stuck in women’s external beauty. The beauty product “Jui Hair Oil” also signifies that without it life becomes dull and anti-romantic.

The second ad (“Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil”) deals with the concept of modernism, feminism and the voice of inferior group. At the beginning of the ad, we can see that a woman practices meditation. She breaks up her meditation after hearing the noise of her maid-servant. We can see the voice of inferior group through the dialogue of the maid-servant. The beauty product called “Parachute Advanced Cooling Hair Oil” indicates that we can remove the class conflict by using it. The maid-servant knows the utilization of AC although she does not have the ability to effort of it. At the end she thanks her owner by touching her neck which represents equality between two social classes.

The negative ideology of the ad is that the house-wives depend on the maid-servants. The slogan represents the helplessness of the dominant social classes who have no other option but to accept the demands of their maid-servants. The ad is made out of two female characters which emphasize exceptionality. In most cases, the ad of beauty products depends on both male and female characters. Advertisers not only promote their product but highlights societies standards of beauty, cultural values and lifestyle.

Conclusion:

The beauty product of Hair Oil focuses unrealistic ideology towards women’s romanticism, domestic life, domestic happiness, personal relationships, personal opinions and mental peace. Furthermore, the purpose of CDA is to demonstrate how the meaning of beauty is manipulated through the eyes’ of advertisers. The study also explores how social factors use specific situations in construction of reality, and control the mind of audience.

About the author

Mahbub Murad

I am a Lecturer of English at Mohanagar Ideal College and the admin of this site. If anyone wants to share his/her idea or get any support, he or she can contract me. - Cell: 01761519111
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